Forza Horizon 3 gives players more control over races

Despite being relatively young, Forza Horizonhas quickly become one of my favorite racing franchises. It doesn’t have the hard-core seriousness of Gran Turismo. It has some of the accessibility of its more established sibling Forza Motorsports, but but what separates Forza Horizon from other titles is the pure freedom and joy inherent in its drive.

In Forza Horizon 3,Playground Games expands the opportunities for fun by bringing the series to Australia. The diverse landscapes of the land down under puts an emphasis on vehicles other than speedy supercars. Creative director Ralph Fulton says, “The open world is twice the size of Forza Horizon 2” and it also has twice as many ecosystems with areas such as canyons, beaches, wine country and rain forests. That terrain makes vehicles like trucks and buggies more viable in races.

That variety shows up in the roster of cars, which reaches up to 350 vehicles at launch, Fulton says.One of the races pits players against a vehicle being carried by a helicopter. Kinda unfair.A NEW ROLE IN HORIZON: The other part of the change is that now players are in charge of the Forza Horizon festival, the celebration that’s at the heart previous games’ stories. As the organizer, players are in the driver’s seat when it comes to event sites and the musical acts. It puts players in a position of power rather than being the newbie driver aiming to hit No. 1 on the leaderboard. It looks like a refreshing take on the narrative side of the series.

It also works hand in hand with one of the new features in Forza Horizon 3 — user-generated content. Now, players of all stripes can create races in Australia. They can switch up the routes. They can work out the time of day, distance and engine restrictions. In this Horizon Blueprint Mode, players can even make a series of competitions and turn it into their own championship complete with its own fancy poster. Best of all, these player-made events will count toward a player’s progression.

“Between you and your friends there’s a near infinite amount of customization,” Fulton said.

Don’t worry, the game isn’t all off-road. There are also street races.
CUSTOMIZED BUCKET LISTS: For a more casual approach to user-generated content, players can make their own Bucket Lists. Players can customize the challenge to certain cars or race types, create a route and have their friends try to beat it. The one caveat is that they must set the time limit themselves with their own skill. Ideally, players will get creative with these Bucket List challenges. Perhaps some will go viral or maybe Playground Games may publish some of the best ones for everyone to try. Fulton says, “Blueprint is the biggest paradigm shift since we began the series.”

As for the Drivatar system, it’s also being tweaked. Now, players will be able to hire their friends’ AI dopplegangers as part of a Drivatar Lineup. This racing crew will help the players earn money during the Forza Horizon festival. The only drawback is that players only have four slots and if a friend’s Drivatar isn’t up to snuff, they can be fired and replaced. That can bring up interesting online conversations.

Players can invite friends into a race for instant co-op with Xbox One and PC gamers.

PERKS OF THE PC MASTER RACE: Lastly, Forza Horizon 3 is an Xbox Play Anywhere title. That means if players pick it up for the Xbox One, they get the Windows 10 version for free. With that, players can compete with friends on either platform. They can play on the Xbox One at home, put their save in the cloud, travel with a gaming laptop and pick up their session in another city. The game doesn’t have to stay at home.

Because this racing title will be on the PC, it will have some visual upgrades when played on a more powerful rig. The most obvious one is that Forza Horizon 3 will support 4K monitors. It will also support variable unlocked framerate and Nvidia’s G-Sync technology as well as FreeSync. For those who enjoy livery making, the PC version will be infinitely easier to design new pieces, but players won’t be able to transfer photos or other images and slap it on a car. All those things must be handmade. But using a keyboard and mouse to design will be infinitely easier than a controller.

Look for Forza Horizon 3 on the Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs on Sept. 27.